Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

high school football:

Desert Pines handles Eldorado to break into the win column

2011 Prep Football

Sam Morris

Desert Pines High School football players Cedrick Poutasi and Allen Vaiao.

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Desert Pines High sophomore Eric Wilkes rushed for 260 yards and five touchdowns Saturday to lead the Jaguars football team to a 53-20 victory against visiting Eldorado.

Desert Pines (1-4, 1-2 Northeast) trailed by one point at halftime, but outscored Eldorado 34-0 in the second half for its first win of the year.

The Desert Pines schedule was one of the toughest in the Las Vegas Valley to open the season. But the Jaguars had first half leads against Pine View of Utah, league rival Canyon Springs and defending Sunrise champion Liberty before falling apart in the second half.

Today, they dominated the second half with five touchdowns.

“All it took was one game to get their confidence back,” Desert Pines coach Paul Bennett said. “We knew it would be a tough four games in the beginning, but we thought we could have easily grabbed (a win) in one or two of those games.”

Desert Pines only passed twice against Eldorado, using strong performances from Wilkes, Leon Hayes and Davion Toney to wear out the Eldorado defense. Evans rushed for 145 yards and a touchdown and Toney had 90 yards on the ground and two scores.

Bennett changed up his lineman rotation, giving Allen Vaiao and Cedrick Poutasi — his two anchors on the offensive line — some breaks defensively. Instead of having them play both ways the entire game, they were able to save some energy for the second half.

“We made some changes with the ways we handle our big guys and it worked out,” Bennett said.

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